When Radhika Kattula was in high school, she focused on how to bring others around to her way of thinking. Pressing her point of view. Debating points on their merit. And persuading others toward her perspective. Now, as a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill, she’s identified another way to ensure that important ideas find favor among an even broader audience.
“For the past several years, I’ve competitively given speeches as part of high school speech and debate,” Kattula said. “This year, as part of the TEDxUNC student organizing committee, it’s been an amazing learning experience to step away from speaking myself and instead work on bringing speakers from all over North Carolina and beyond and supporting them as they share their own messages and ideas worth spreading.”
Kattula’s personal evolution from debater to someone who now sees how an event can be a conduit of ideas captures the essence of the 2019 TEDxUNC event theme of “Flow.” All discussion topics at the event revolved around the notion that the experiences, choices and actions of our past – like Kattula’s participation in speech and debate – flow into and shape our present and future.
| UNC-CH